This month, Peru’s Ministry of the Environment and CIFOR signed a formal agreement to increase cooperation on research into forestry and sustainable development. This pact looks to produce targeted research to inform stronger policies and practices to sustain the forests of the Peruvian Amazon. “Protecting the Amazon requires national commitment, and Peru is demonstrating its commitment to supporting research and policies that manage the trade-offs between conservation and development,” said CIFOR’s director general, Peter Holmgren. Read more about the agreement here.

Related reading:

SPECIAL REPORT:“Lessons from the Amazon”: Who’s buying Ecuador’s timber? How is a remote Brazilian state leading climate-change policy? Can nut and timber harvests co-exist in Peru? See stories, videos and more in a special report on the latest CIFOR research in the forests of the Amazon.

“We now have the largest youth and most restless generation in human history. Too many activities happen without the input from young people”: These words opened the discussion sessions at the Global Landscapes Forum. More than 200 young people and their supporters came together to deliver a strong message to climate negotiators, urging them to address land uses in a coherent way — putting youth at the center. Read their messages here.

More landscapes news:

OUTCOME STATEMENT: How should the landscapes approach inform policy? How can the Sustainable Development Goals, REDD+ and the post-Kyoto climate framework benefit from a landscapes approach? Read full recommendations on these and other subjects from participants at the Global Landscapes Forum.

LANDSCAPES HUB: Don't forget to watch Landscapes.org — updated weekly — for the latest news and information from CIFOR and our partners about the landscapes approach.

ForestsClimateChange.org is CIFOR's new online portal for original news, views and research on forests and climate change

Meet Billy the African elephant. At 2.4m in height, he is a little smaller than your average African elephant, but he’s become somewhat of a local celebrity to scientists working in Gabon’s Lope National Park. A researcher carrying out fieldwork spotted Billy from a distance and set up his LiDAR laser scanner to get a picture. The LiDAR technology is increasingly used by foresters to take high-precision measurements of forests — critical for schemes aiming to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). Read the story here.

Forest cover mapping technology, the IPCC's guidelines for wetlands in greenhouse gas inventories, and a new theory on how forests may determine rainfall – this is just some of the research that readers nominated as the forests and climate change highlights of 2013. Over the festive season, we will be profiling the forest climate policies, tools, methodologies and news stories that made a splash in 2013. Read the full story here.

The timeline for Forests Asia has shifted — the two-day event will now take place on 5-6 May 2014 in Jakarta.

CIFOR is accepting applications from organizations to host Technical and Networking sessions on 5 May. The deadline for applications is 31 January 2014. For guidelines and information on applying, please visit www.forestsasia.org or contact Adinda Hasan: a.hasan@cgiar.org

As countries ponder incentives to slow the degradation of their tropical forests, a huge, unanswered question looms: What exactly is a degraded forest? Programs that provide such incentives, such as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), a U.N.-backed initiative, face the challenge of accurate measurements of deforestation and degradation. New criteria can help address that problem. Read the full story here.

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About CIFOR

CIFOR advances human well-being, environmental conservation and equity by conducting research to help shape policies and practices that affect forests in developing countries. CIFOR is a member of the CGIAR Consortium. Our headquarters are in Bogor, Indonesia, with offices in Asia, Africa and South America.